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The dinosaur has gone live.

Last week, I hinted at a new project I was working on that would satisfy my desire to write about things that are not necessarily related to language or linguistics. I obviously have a lot to say about those subjects, and I don’t plan on giving them up, but I can’t ignore all the other ideas that swirl around my poor restless brain on a daily basis.

This morning, I posted the first real entry for my new blog, A Modern Day Dinosaur. Go check it out and tell me what you think!

The name of the new blog comes from the feeling that I have that I am somewhat at odds with much of mainstream society. I’ve long wondered why I always seem to be the last person on the block to get a new gadget or see the blockbuster movies. Sometimes I feel I’m missing out, but mostly I’m fine not being part of the vanguard of change. It lends me an objectivity, a different perspective on the behaviors and lifestyles I see everyone else participating in, and then I write to figure out what I’ve observed.

Now, I’m not saying that I have turned my back on society, gone completely au natural and am living as a hermit off the grid somewhere in the Badlands of South Dakota (as cool as it might be to live in a place known as ‘the Badlands’.) I love my computer and I use my iPod Nano on a regular basis. But it’s increasingly obvious to me that I’m not ever going to be waiting on line for the next version of the iPhone to be for sale, nor curl up on the couch to read for hours on a Kindle. I don’t even have or want a Kindle. I won’t say I’ll never have one, but I can guarantee I’ll be subjected to a lot of exclamations of, “WHAT? You don’t have a Kindle??” before I ever get one.

Thanks Annie! I do admit that technology is tempting, mostly because I like shiny things ;) But it takes me a while to decide that I want anything to do with the new gadgets that actually aren’t so new by the time I get hold of one.

I am surprised too sometimes at how fascinated older people are by the newest technology. I can kind of understand it. Just look at music technology. The phonograph was essentially the same technology for over 100 years, just maybe changing in the materials and better ways to play the albums. Then in my lifetime alone, we went from records to 8-tracks to cassettes to CDs to mp3s. The idea of the newest generation of iPod Nano, that tiny little thing, being able to hold thousands of songs just boggles my mind when I stop to think about it. It must be that much more startling for someone who lived with records for most of their lives and then suddenly saw this burst of technological advancement. Some run from it screaming, but others completely embrace it.

I rarely see movies in the theater; we do not have cable; I do not own a smart phone, iPad, Kindle, Nook, Nano, ipod, etc. I definitely feel like an outsider. Alas, I like it out here.
Okay, now I am off to see about a dinosaur.

I like it on the outside, too. I do have an iPod because I like to have it when I’m exercising, and I use it to drown out noises when I’m taking public transportation or studying in a cafe. And I have cable because network tv doesn’t really do it for me.